Electrical connectors which interface between a multi-wire cable and an electrical receptacle have been known in the past. Typically, a cord is connected to a current source or to a computer peripheral item wherein the cord contains wires to carry electrical current. The cable typically has some type of connector at each end which is to be plugged into a mating receptacle. A connector/receptacle interface is common on the back of computer CPUs, and is also common with computer peripheral devices such as printers, monitors, disk drives, etc. There have been numerous patents over the years which have described computer cable connectors. Exemplary connectors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,167,523, 4,904,202, 5,340,329, 4,702,542, 5,713,752, 5,197,901, 5,741,150 and 5,716,228.
Prior to the present invention, the retention force between the connector and the receptacle has not been made adequately adjustable during connector manufacture. It may be desirable to adjust the force necessary to separate the connector from the receptacle. There may be reasons why a user may want a removal force that is very high, i.e., a great amount of force is required to separate the connector from the receptacle. Conversely, there may be a reason to have a very low retention force, i.e., the amount of force required to separate the connector from the receptacle is very low.
Prior to the present invention, there was not an electrical connector which allowed easy adjustment of the retention force during manufacture.
The prior art also describes numerous connectors which require a pin to retain the pivot arm of the connector. The assembly of this pin requires the step of inserting a small pin through a number of apertures. This assembly step results in additional time and expense. Thus there is a need for a connector which has an improved pivot arm securing assembly.